I'm in a debate with someone, and there saying women have been discouraged growing up from bein interested in computers, and I want to point that the boys have not just be discouraged but also strait up bullied for being interested in computers

MummasCumquat · 2015-03-10T04:05:00+00:00

Good grief. Just watch the supposedly hard-done-by women shun you in the 90s when you tell them you're into computers. And now we're supposed to turn around and feel sorry for them? Fucking rich.

intensely_human · 2015-03-10T04:50:46+00:00

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baskandpurr · 2015-03-10T13:38:37+00:00

I have a successful STEM career now because I taught myself to program when I was young. I had no classes and no encouragement. My family (especially the women) told me it was a waste of time. I stole the first computer I learned to program on because I had no money. I spent countless hours learning to write code, I have risked many thousands of pounds. Today, more than 20 years later, I will be learning something new again and I am looking forward to it. I'm not being helped or asking permission and nobody is giving me instructions. I'm doing it because I want to learn.

When I started, programming was for boffins or children playing games. It was ugly and unfriendly, no social networks, no internet, no shiny Macbooks, no Youtube. You got programming books from the library. My interest in it was a sign that I was nerdy and weak. Most females showed no interest in computers, sometimes a degree of repulsion in fact. There have always been women who do pursue programming for the enjoyment, they didn't ask for special consideration but they were treated as equals.

Now that STEM is where all the money is, people work in big offices and make lots of money, women suddenly want to be part of it. Now women are 'assisted' all the way through so that you can never gauge their motivation. Learning has become lot more acceptable, accessible and even social.

So if some women want to be where I am they can have exactly the same amount of help and encouragement that I had. None. Go steal your own computer.

intensely_human · 2015-03-10T04:25:39+00:00

As a guy who watched the civil rights movement, unless there is someone with a gun keeping you out its not really discouragement, its just laziness on your part. Everyone has obstacles to overcome, everyone.

YetAnotherCommenter · 2015-03-10T08:25:07+00:00

I don't think there is actually very much hard research on nerd bullying, but there are so many popular stories about the subject that it has to have been part of many people's experiences. Its a culturally expected phenomenon.

Computers are not seen as highly macho at all. Nerds are not seen as normatively masculine and we continue to get bullied for it. Computers may be seen as unfeminine but unfeminine =/= masculine.

jo939 · 2015-03-10T06:25:07+00:00

There was some article a while back, I think on the NY Times, saying more women had CompSci degrees in the 80s than do now. That might be good proof that society isn't failing women, it's catering to them. It's telling them they don't need to get meaningful degrees to be well off and have tons of privileges and benefits.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2015-03-10T12:16:22+00:00

Women just aren't as strong as men.

Boys can take relentless teasing and bullying and still focus on their dreams.

Whereas for women a single tshirt or word can entirely crush them.

They're delicate flowers in need of male protection.

xNOM · 2015-03-10T11:26:32+00:00

You're in a debate with an idiot...

MRSPArchiver · 2015-03-10T04:04:08+00:00

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namae_nanka · 2015-03-10T08:23:03+00:00

The amusing thing is that the reason that boys were so much into video games was because the school didn't cater to their needs. So the crowding out of women happened because boys were pushed out of traditional school subjects and then pursued it out of their own wills.

Jellydress · 2015-03-10T18:08:51+00:00

Jesus dude, no spell check where you are?

Vandechoz · 2015-03-11T00:00:54+00:00

In my experience there isn't really so much of a discouragement of Computers for anyone as there is a really big blank spot where there could be encouragement. I went to 3 different high schools and didn't see a single programming course offered. Much more important to learn what a gerund is for the 5th time, I suppose.

metho321 · 2015-03-11T16:00:34+00:00

Majority of my IT teachers when I was at school were female, and it seemed the students who did well and got the most encouragement were also female

GenderNeutralLanguag · 2015-03-10T04:50:00+00:00

Males outnumber females in Computer Science. You are going to have a hard time making the case that boys are discouraged to the same extent girls are because the populations in the field don't support your position.

The much stronger MRA position would be about men in nursing. Males with an interest in nursing are bullied and told they just aren't good with people and therefor internalize this. That's why we don't see males in nursing. By the exact same logic with the exact same evidience males are being discriminated against, only worse, in nursing. If whom ever your debating was for equality, not benifits for women, the debate wouldn't be over women in Computers, but men in Nursing.

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